Ate food journal or PlateDiary? Two different jobs.

Same app, new name

What Ate (now AteMate) is for.

The app once called Ate is listed on the App Store as AteMate Food Journal & Coach, by Piqniq Inc. — its release notes say “We are now AteMate!”. You snap a photo of a meal and it recognizes the food. Alongside meals you can note mood, hydration, movement and sleep, and an AI coach answers questions about patterns in your journal, like energy and sleep. It can bring in readings from devices through Apple Health. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.

That makes it a wellbeing journal for every meal, including breakfast at your desk — and for people who want to notice how food and the rest of the day connect.

The other job

What PlateDiary is for.

PlateDiary is for the meals you’ll want to talk about later: the khao soi in Chiang Mai, the long Sunday lunch in Lyon, a birthday at the ramen bar. One photo of the table and each dish and drink is cut out on your phone into its own save. Saves group into moments by place and time, and fill a board, a map, a page per place and a page per companion.

There’s nothing to count unless you choose to. It isn’t a health app, and it’s in the Food & Drink category on the App Store.

The real split

Everyday meals vs meals out.

If you want numbers

Calories in PlateDiary: off unless you turn them on.

AteMate’s page says it can show calories as an optional learning tool. PlateDiary has an optional Calories view too, and it’s off unless you turn it on. When on, PlateDiary AI can give each dish one rough “~” number you can accept or correct, or you type your own; a Calories page adds up the meals you saved. Numbers are never written to Apple Health or Health Connect.

Three questions

Ask yourself before you download.

• Which meals do you want to keep? Every meal, including the desk salad → AteMate. The nights out → PlateDiary.
• What do you want to see later? Patterns in how you feel → AteMate. Places, dishes and people → PlateDiary.
• How much do you want to add? AteMate asks about mood, water, sleep and movement. PlateDiary asks for one photo; everything else is optional.

Pick yours

Who should pick which.

We make PlateDiary, so weigh that in. AteMate details come from its own App Store page as it read on 19 October 2026. Nothing here is health advice; for that, talk to a doctor or dietitian.

• Choose AteMate if… you want to photograph every meal and see how eating sits alongside sleep, mood and movement, with a coach to ask.
• Choose PlateDiary if… you want to remember restaurants, dishes and the people you shared them with, with nothing to count by default.
• Use both if… you like AteMate for daily check-ins and want a separate, happier album of nights out.

Sources

Where the facts come from